Roundabout needed to slow dangerous traffic outside Laois estate
A roundabout is badly needed outside a Graiguecullen estate to improve safety in the area, a recent council meeting was told.
Cllr Padraig Fleming insisted a roundabout would reduce speed on approaches to the estate where he estimated there would be 1,000 journeys in and out daily.
“It is treacherous there at the moment. Luckily there’s been no serious accidents but there have been a whole lot of near ones. Then the children have to cross an N80 where cars are doing 80kph, literally, to go over to the far side to get the school bus in the morning.”
He told the meeting of Portarlington Graiguecullen Municipal District that he wanted the message to go out that the priority should be the roundabout.
“TII(Transport Infrastructure Ireland) in their great wisdom they want cars to travel so fast that they are a danger. I don’t know when they are going to grow up about that but it is about time they did,” said Cllr Fleming.
He put forward a motion seconded by Cllr Ben Brennan stating: “That Laois County Council and Transport Infrastructure Ireland install a roundabout outside the Heather Hill Estate, Graiguecullen, on the N80. This estate caters for about 200 houses and a crèche. The official speed limit is 80Kms per hour and this is creating a major traffic danger to residents, etc and school students, who have to cross the N80 to get the school bus, with cars doing 80 Kms per hour on this road. Also, to request Transport Infrastructure Ireland to immediately reduce the speed limit to 60 kms per hour from the current 80 kms per hour from the Sleaty Road Roundabout, Graiguecullen to the Killeshin/Castlecomer Roundabout in the interest of everybody’s safety.”
Cllr Brennan said “the problem is when the speed limit review was going ahead that should have been brought down to 60 or 50kmph.” He said cars were now “quite entitled” to travel the road at 80kph.
He said there will be a serious accident if action isn’t taken and he suggested a pedestrian crossing on the road as well.
Cllr Aisling Moran expressed her support for the motion. She claimed the TII’s job was to keep traffic moving “as quickly as possible” and she said, “a pedestrian crossing would be a very good idea as well.”
However, Cllr Fleming said a roundabout was needed not a pedestrian crossing. He said speed would need to be reduced at the location as well. “It was 100 before and they would not listen to bring it down to the 60 we wanted but they insisted on 80.”
“I genuinely believe the TII are so blinded in big population areas they want to keep all the traffic speeding like hell,” he said. He insisted the roundabout is the real solution for the stretch of road. “If we got that we would be 90% of the way there,” he remarked.
In his response, Assistant Senior Executive Engineer Farhan Nasiem stated: “Road Design section will engage with TII for roundabout proposal and reduction of speed limit at this location."